Chpt 4 - Into the Mountains
Taking a breath after felling the undead behemoth, our heroes collect themselves; some scraping off the stone. A rest is had as the decision is made to proceed further up the mountain to this stone door inlaid into the the hill itself. The party finds themselves greeted by a massive stone door, seemingly long forgotten. The gateway is flanked by two large dwarven faces carved into the stone. Upon approaching, Cub reads an inscription carved into the door: "Blood and Stone, Metal and Bone. A stalwart shield, a vigilant mountain, we remain to protect those who cannot protect themselves. I am become Legion.” With this, the mouths of the faces open. Glaurung, out of impatience or curiosity, sticks his hand into an opening, wincing in pain as a surge of arcane energy flows through him. Half of the inscription lights up. A few things are tested before Siluir follows suit, but he goes through the process painlessly. In fact, it was almost a comforting sensation for him. The doors open, inviting the group inside. They find a Dwarven chamber, seemingly long forgotten. Broken statues and pillars litter the entrance. Some seem much more recently disturbed than others. The group finds themselves proceeding down a large, ornate stairway. For minutes, then an hour...with the door still close behind them when they look back. Keth grows frustrated. Cub and Hem, however, sense something is amiss. Hem, familiar with illusion magic and traps of this nature, find the source of this endless hallway with some work. Hem and Cub expertly disarm it, finding the source to be two warm gems recently embedded in the wall. The group proceeds into what they find to be a large forgotten Dwarven complex consisting of barracks and training grounds. Cub finds and befriends a Nothic, a horrible, gaunt, skiked one eyed creature. They strike a deal that the Nothic will lead them through the ruins if the group clears out the white skinned half orc raising the dead, the one who killed his friend. The group reluctantly follows the excited Cub. He leads them to a ruined bridge. They soon discover gravity is reversed across this chamber, as zombies slowly shamble towards them. Combining a grappling hook, blinks, flight, a club to destroy the source of the enchantment, and an immovable rod, most of the group makes their way across without trouble. Keth however, misses her jump and flys upwards up the cavern, slamming into a writhing wall of dead dwarven flesh, panicking, she transforms into a giant spider as the zombie dwarves claw away at her. She barely manages to make it to the group, a little shaken from crawling through a wall of flesh. They rest, as best they can, as the sound of flesh and zombie splattering the ground a hundred feet below and the moaning of reanimated corpses making them uneasy. In what they deem to be the morning, the group makes their way into the main sanctum of this forgotten outpost. As soon as they enter, an arcane alarm alerts the necromancer to the group's presence. She looks up from her work, seemingly unperturbed by their presence. She speaks in a bored tone, seemingly assessing the group and notating her thoughts aloud. She mentions Glaurung reminding her of a brute named Tichondrius. She muses about her necromancy being a side project, something more civilized than her work with the "savages" she says, eyeing Keth. Complaining that Helga got the better assignment, working with the dwarves. She ponders why her Queen would send her, of all people, to this part of Berg...growing frustrated and nervous of this white-skinned orcs speech, Outsider shoots her. She growls as the arrow pierces her shoulder, and continues to muse aloud. She looks at the kenku and deduces he is from the Auran Vale, and says she may take her savages there to experiment on the flightless ravens. She leaves them with a warning: we'll see if you are strong enough to survive the coming Winter. If you are, you can succeed in the new world. If not, meh. She leaves them with a test: an undead beholder, an undead minotaur, and a stone copy of Glaurung. The fight is tough, with Hem falling unconscious at one point. However, with strategic combat, and smart engagement, the party comes out on top. They find the chamber of a long dead Dwarven Ranger Captain before they make their way back out into the sun.